REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT
VICTORIA TURNS GOLD INTO SAND AND BACK AGAIN THE VICTORIAN MINERAL SANDS INDUSTRY HOLDS THE POTENTIAL TO SATISFY A GROWING MARKET ON A GLOBAL STAGE. BUT TO ACCESS THESE SIGNIFICANT RESOURCES, COLLABORATION WILL BE VITAL AMONG BUSINESSES AND WITH GOVERNMENT. HENRY BALLARD WRITES.
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eneath the Victorian countryside, both east and west of Melbourne, lies a sleeping giant of great value to present and emerging
technologies. While headlines in the state’s resources sector typically revolve around matters of gold or construction materials, there is another resource with significant potential being developed in the background. Australia’s mineral sands endowment includes an estimated 274 million tonnes (Mt) of ilmenite, 79Mt of zircon and 35Mt of rutile. Of these resources, Victoria holds 23 per cent of Australia’s ilmenite, 42 per cent of its zircon and 55 per cent of its rutile – ranking second, first and first, respectively, among Australian states. Once processed, the minerals are widely used in products such as paint, paper, plastics, ceramics and welding materials, plus a range of clean energy technologies.
The Victorian Government’s Head of Resources John Krbaleski says the development of the state’s mineral sands projects could one day feed into a circular economy for these technologies. “With several solar and wind projects being evaluated in north-west Victoria, there may be opportunities for future heavy mineral sand operations to be powered by renewable energy that enables the responsible production of the metals required,” Krbaleski tells Australian Mining. Reasons both environmental and economic are what motivate companies like Iluka Resources and Astron Corporation to develop their respective resources in western Victoria. Iluka owns the WIM100 zircon and rare earth minerals deposit in the Wimmera region, 300 kilometres west of Melbourne, and has operated in Victoria for almost 20 years. The company also owns several similar WIM-style tenements nearby – known for their fine grain
characteristics – but industry has been stalled by the difficulty in processing such resources. As the zircon within some of western Victoria’s mineral sands deposits contains impurities – including the 200Mt WIM100 deposit – companies like Iluka are faced with a significant technological challenge. Iluka chief financial officer and head of development Adele Stratton says the ability to process the minerals is key to the project’s feasibility. “Without purification, the zircon is ineligible for the ceramics market. Ceramics account for approximately 50 per cent of the global zircon market and a zircon project that is ineligible for this market is not viable unless an economic means of purification is confirmed,” Stratton says. “Iluka has invested considerably in developing such a solution over a number of years and continues to make pleasing progress.” Nearby, Donald Mineral Sands (DMS) was created as a subsidiary of Astron, which has owned the Donald
A TEST PIT AT ILUKA RESOURCES’ WIM100 MINERAL SANDS DEPOSIT. AUSTRALIANMINING
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mineral sands project since 2004. Just 90 kilometres northeast of WIM100, the Donald project has its own 5.4Mt of zircon, 9.2Mt of ilmenite, 8Mt of titanium products rutile and leucoxene, and 491,000 tonnes of rare earth elements. DMS managing director Tiger Brown says the company has so far been happy with its efforts to develop a processing solution. “Through the advancement of spiral technologies, commercial recovery questions have been addressed,” Brown says. “Using specially adapted spirals for the fine-grained material, Astron has conducted pilot test work to concentrate the ore to a heavy mineral concentrate and then undertake mineral separation to final products with high recovery levels.” With various miners in the same development position where processing solutions pose one of the biggest hurdles, significant opportunity arises for collaboration within the region. Krbaleski says he expects industry to
